The architect, planner and architectural historian Gustavo Giovannoni (1873–1947) played an important role in integrating modern planning requirements into historic town centres in Italy and beyond, and his work is introduced in a Context article based on the commended IHBC Annual Student Award dissertation by Marc Piqué i Gascon from Bath University.
Author Marc Piqué i Gascon writes:
Gustavo Giovannoni’s article ‘Vecchie città ed edilizia nuova’ (1913) is considered to be one of the first critical contributions on the relationship between historic buildings, town centres, urban expansion and functional reorganization… Giovannoni’s scientific restoration theories influenced Italian and European legislation in conservation and planning, including the Carta del Restauro (Italian Charter of Conservation), published in 1932, that followed his contribution to the 1931 Athens Charter
Giovannoni was a Roman engineer, architect, planner and architectural historian. After graduating in civil engineering (1895) and in public hygiene (1896), he studied medieval and modern art history. His research studies focused on the architecture of Rome and traditional building techniques. In 1937 he founded Palladio, the first Italian journal of architectural history. In 1938 he founded the Centro di Studi per la Storia dell’Architettura (Research Centre on Architectural History) in Rome.
As an architect-engineer he applied modern techniques to traditional design. He designed various buildings for the Birra Peroni company (1901–1909) using the new reinforced concrete technology and in the 1920s he designed several neo-baroque churches. He was a founder of the first school of architecture in Rome (1919), where he taught architecture and conservation. He insisted on the figure of the architetto integrale (complete architect), who would be able to understand and promote historic, artistic and social values, and understand traditional techniques and modern technology….
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